Lake Barkley

We left Cumberland Tow Head early Sunday morning in the rain along with Southern Belle.  Rain was predicted for all day, but after three nights at anchor we were anxious to get to a dock.  Shortly after entering the Cumberland river there was a down bound tow.  We radioed him and he said a one whistle pass would be fine for him but that there was a much larger tow "up river a way's".  The other tow radioed us and asked that we hold up where we were until he cleared the tight bends.  The cumberland river was narrow with many bends.  These were the only tows we met up with all day.

This was the most interesting thing we saw from the Cumberland River until we reached the Barkley Lock.  We thought the grandsons would enjoy the big yellow dump truck dumping his load of gravel into the barge.

We had left the anchorage at first light before anyone on the five other boats were awake.  About 8 miles from Barkley Lock as we approached Dooms point and received a radio call from our friend Kerm on Southern Belle that they had lost their engine.  We were about a mile ahead and by the time we got back to them they had their anchor down and they were secure.  As Kerm was working on the problem the 5 other boats at last night's anchorage passed us.  Kerm was able to re-prime the fuel system and got the engine restarted.   We were on our way shortly after the other boats passed us and we were able to lock through with them.

The Barkley Lock is a 57 foot lift, the associated Barkley dam on the Cumberland river created Lake Barkley.  About a mile west of here is the Kentucky lock and dam on the Tennessee river which created Kentucky Lake.  This area is known as the Land Between the Lakes, parts of which are a National Recreation area.

We arrived at Green Turtle Bay Marina in Grand Rivers, Kentucky and were secured in our slip  by 1:45pm.  We will be staying here for a week while we finalize our plans from here to the AGLCA rendezvous at Joe Wheeler State Park in Alabama later next month.

After a wet rainy day it's good to be tied to a dock.
John & Mary